Such was the question that I was determined to finally answer when I got the recent Blu-ray disc release of Bertolucci’s still-argument-provoking 1972 film, in which the future director of A ma soeur! and Barbe Bleue, to name but two of my favorites of hers, is credited as appearing in the role of “Mouchette,” while sister Marie-Hélene plays “Muriel.” And I believe I found the two, in the scene in which Maria Schneider’s Jeanne is trying on her wedding dress and discussing the relation of love to “pop marriage” and advertising with her schmuck cinephile/cineaste fiancé Tom (poor Jean-Pierre Léaud) and very nearly giving away her secret affair with the aging American Paul (Marlon Brando). To be honest, I can’t be quite sure here which one is Catherine and which is Marie-Hélene; while the characters are named in the credits, they’re not referred to by those names in the film proper (unless I missed something). Marie Hélene is only all of thirteen months older than Catherine, so it’s hard to tell the difference. (It’s kind of funny to consider their scant age difference and incredibly strong resemblance in contrast to the admittedly autobiographical or quasi-autobiographical portrayals of the sisters in the Breillat films I cite above, and the marked dissimilarities between the two girls in each of those films; just another study for the “perception IS reality” book, I guess.) Anyway, the two act very sweet and hippy dippy as they attend to Jeanne like ladies in waiting; it’s a moment of comic and lyrical respite before everything starts coming crashing down and the film reaches its peculiar conclusion, which itself prompts a number of questions: is Jeanne in fact in “the wrong?” Will Paul be happier without the chewing gum? And so on.
Still such a weird, multi-layered film, really a mess in certain ways, because it tries to do so much; it’s a study of the iconography of Hollywood stardom and what happens when you metaphorically destroy the system upon which it’s built (and if you think that’s over-reading the film, you need to pay closer attention to the description of Paul the cleaning woman tells Paul she gave to the authorities), a study of the soul-rot that can be an inherent feature of a certain species of cinephilia (something Bertolucci never quite got out of his system, and a topic to which I can imagine the sometime anti-cinephile Richard Brody warming to), AND an attempt to apply a new frankness to sexuality than had prior been attempted in conventional narrative film. It is this last feature that Breillat most obviously picked up at least part of her own artistic cue from, and from film to film you can see her succeeding where Bertolucci failed, and failing in ways he never even dreamed of. And that’s even before we start getting into the attendant gender and sexual politics of the whole deal.
I have to say since I’m here that I’m not crazy about the MGM/UA Blu-ray—it strikes me as a bit on the noisy side—and still have very fond memories of Criterion’s laser disc, which I recollect as having been mastered from superior materials. Not that there’s much of anything I can do about that.
Though I’ve always appreciated LAST TANGO’s iconic stature since the first time I saw it on TMC at 4 AM, coming down from acid in the early 80’s, subsequent viewings bear out the reading you detail above – i.e., it really is, for good or ill, all about Brando, or perhaps “Brando”, and Bud himself is a little too self-absorbed to recognize the difference, much less (more likely) give a shit either way. Certain shots that seem to rhyme with compositions in THE CONFORMIST suggest to me that Bertolucci is trying to achieve a similarly complex relationship with his protagonist in TANGO, revealing the appeal and louche turpitude simultaneously. Both Schneider’s character and especially Léaud’s equally self-absorbed cinephile dolt feel like like straw wo/men, trimmed fingernails and all, to bolster a narrative centered around TANGO’s “Brando” perplex.
And then, oh brother (sister?), is there ever the not-delicate matter of TANGO’s “gender and sexual politics”. Not to put too delicate a point on it, for me the film uncomfortably reveals Brando the pig in many of his artlessly improvised interactions with Schneider, and they are incredibly grating to sit through. Maria/Jeanne’s ultimately homicidal identity politics (as it were) are cold comfort, indeed – sisters doing it for themselves notwithstanding, you don’t need to be on LSD to plainly see that Brando’s formal function in TANGO, where he was, pace Hemingway’s Moveable Feast, cast as The Man Who Was Marked for Death.
Oh, and – Breillat clearly took the engagée sexual politics in TANGO and ran with them in a completely different, tougher-minded and stranger direction. Stranger, that is to say, than fiction.
Nice bit of detective work there. Shame about the Blu, as it’s a film that I am (or was) in the mood to revisit. I’d forgotten that JPL was in it, for one thing.
Thanks Stephen. It’s not all Unvarnished Opinion here at SCR; we do strive to Provide Service.
As for the Blu-ray, don’t get me wrong, it’s hardly unwatchable. But for a film of its stature, the disc is certainly not All It Could Be. (I envision image quality somewhere between the Criterion “Red Desert” Blu and the same firm’s “Last Emperor” Blu.) Certainly worth Netflixing or purchasing at popular prices (last week I saw the 1st Ave. Kim’s had it for 17 bucks).
>Bud himself is a little too self-absorbed to recognize the difference
I couldn’t disagree more, James. Brando’s genius–and I use the word deliberately–is that he measured to the drop the differences between himself and Paul. He (with Bertolucci’s prompting, no doubt) reversed the normal direction between actor and role, with Brando’s particulars taking the place of whatever made-up backstory an actor would normally use, so that it’s almost as if Paul is playing Brando rather than the other way around. What’s precisely amazing about it is that Brando did it without getting sappy or falling into some other trap. All I know is, moments like the when where he comes up behind Jeanne, taps her on the opposite shoulder, and starts that “I’m 45…” speech–I’ve never seen its like anytime, anyplace, or from anybody except in “Last Tango”. And he has about a dozen of them in the movie.
I agree about the Blu-Ray. It’s a step up from the old DVD–those white specks on the opening titles used to kill me–but goddam, people, it IS the Blu-Ray release of “Last Tango in Paris”. No commentaries, no extras beyond the original trailer? That’s the very definition of lame.
If anyone’s interested here’s some other stuff I wrote about the movie:
http://tomblock.wordpress.com/2011/02/16/marlon-maria-me/
Between Schneider’s death and the new disc I was ready to let some shit go.
In addition to agreeing with what Tom says about Brando’s performance here, I would also add I think the film doesn’t treat Schneider as a straw character (there’s a case to be made for Leaud’s character being one). Brando’s presence and history certainly make him larger than life, but she holds the camera in the scenes she has without him, and I thought she was able to keep up with him as well. For a Bertolucci movie with an unequal balance, I would point to BESIEGED, where Thandie Newton was captivating and playing an interesting character, but David Thewlis was playing a cipher, and therefore the balance of the movie was all out of whack.
Also, while I think most people seem to think Brando’s speech over his dead wife was the emotional point of the film – and it is a moving scene – even more powerful for me is the scene when he does the tango with Schneider and asks for the real relationship he had denied wanting throughout the film.
“Brando’s genius–and I use the word deliberately–” I hope so! “is that he measured to the drop the differences between himself and Paul.”
I imagine that genius measurement would have happened in advance of Brando’s asking Betrolucci if, in lieu of his multiple cue cards, he could read his lines off of portions of Ms. Schnieder’s anatomy – i.e., a priori vs. a posteriori?
Sorry, guys, I can’t possibly deny the moments of genius such a mammoth talent like Brando’s had at this point – the speech to the dead wife is definitely the high point for me – but it’s also the beginning of the end for me. What Tom finds galvanizing and script-flipping in Brando’s performance I find, except in places, indulged where not not-women’s-liberationist-exactly. Relationship, schmeelationship – in the end, he wants to know her name (thus, the “identity” gag…I’m not saying it was funny, only, thus) and Jeanne’s response could be the only unmanipulated action she’s permitted in the film, but for the manipulation coming from the script.
I recognize TANGO’s importance at the time, and passages mentioned – as, for sure, the last tango – aspire to and occasionally achieve the iconic. But it sure has not grown on me.
In “1900” both Depardieu and De Niro had GIANT dicks.
Actually, Lex, that’s not precisely true, and I can prove it. But I won’t, because I’d feel really weird doing the screen capture.
The last time I saw 1900 was during the 1991 theatrical re-release of the 5‑hour version. On a big screen, and to a 19-year-old dude (ie me) with a really small dick, they seemed ENORMOUS.
In fact, I may have never seen porn at that point in life, so those might’ve been the first dicks I’d ever seen on camera, and compared to my 5 inches, it was mind blowing.
Also, NO ACTOR today would do that. Not even Vincent Gallo. Wasn’t the chick stroking them off side by side at full mast with balls in frame? How did shit like that ever get ok’d in the pre-Internet world?
I’ve just noticed that the Depardieu movie which ends with him cutting off his own dick, ‘The Last Woman’ (1976), came out the same year as the similarly-climaxing ‘Ai no Corrida’; I mean how much of a coincidence is that?!
I’m pretty sure the sister on the right is Catherine.
Yeah, if you Google images for Catherine that’s clearly her on the right. And if you want someone who simply CANNOT let go of a question about Last Tango, I give you this guy:
http://mysterytrack.wordpress.com/2010/03/18/uncredited-music/
He ought to be the bloomin’ head of INTERPOL.
Love the film, love the BD. I think it looks amazing and agree about the (lack of) extras. I thought CB was the chick in the film crew, but WTF do I know? I just love this movie in so many ways and it was what I watched the night Brando died.